Peruvians get day off after history-making win

As Peru’s president promised, the South American country will have a football-dedicated holiday today.

Peru’s 2-0 win over New Zealand sent them to the World Cup for the first time since 1982 in Spain.

After a goalless draw in New Zealand on Saturday, a more vibrant Peru showed up at the Estadio Nacional.

Despite the absence of their main striker Paolo Guerrero, who has been suspended by Fifa on doping suspicions, the Peruvians controlled the match from the start.

At 28 minutes, striker Jefferson Farfan opened the scoring from the edge of the box, burying the ball into the New Zealand net. In tears, the Lokomotiv Moscow forward showed the shirt of his boyhood friend Guerrero to the crowd.

Then at 65 minutes, defender Christian Ramos netted the second after a mistake from New Zealand’s defenders, who let a corner bounce past them.

Peru’s qualification put the South American team in a World Cup pot with Spain, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Croatia.

The final draw of the Russia World Cup will be on December 1 at the Kremlin in Moscow and groups will be formed with one team from each of the four pots.

A still tearful Farfan said after the match that his team had “to endure a lot of nonsense until we got here”.

“I dedicate this to Paolo, I promised him we would deliver,” Farfan said.

Guerrero scored six goals for Peru in the South American qualifiers.

Peru coach Ricardo Gareca preferred to thank the team’s psychologist for the result.

“He was very important for us at this turbulent moment,” the Argentinian coach said.

Midfielder Christian Cueva, who assisted Farfan for the first goal and took the corner that led to the second, said Peru deserves the holiday promised by President Pedro Paulo Kuczynski.

“It is a wait of 36 years, we didn’t deserve to be away from the World Cup for so long,” Cueva said. “All Peruvians should take [today] to celebrate as never before.”

Kuczynski used Twitter to ask for moderation in the festivities on the holiday.

“Thanks to our warriors for giving us this joy. Let’s celebrate with responsibility,” he said.

AFRICA:

Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia

ASIA:

Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia

NORTH/CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN:

Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama

SOUTH AMERICA:

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay

EUROPE:

Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland